Beef And Vegetable Stew- in the Slow Cooker

Normally on Sunday, I do a Sunday Roast with either a pudding or an apple crumble, however with no oven, I have resorted to using my slow cooker... and it has not disappointed.

After 8 hours of waiting, and at least 3 hours of the delicious scents, we finally got to enjoy our dinner. Just about everything was eaten, well everything apart from the potatoes. Even Mr 1, who does not generally eat meat, ate the meat. Seriously it melted in my mouth, it was delicious.

Then as a bit of incentive for the boys, they had ice cream with sprinkles. So they got their hearty meaty and vegie meal as well as something to hit their sweet tooth.

BEEF AND VEGETABLE STEW

 Ingredients

1 Onion

1 Carrot

1 Parsnip

1 Swede or Turnip

2 Potatoes

1 Celery Stalk

100g Button Mushrooms

1kg Chuck Steak, fat removed and cut into 4cm chunks

2 Garlic Cloves, chopped

1 tsp Dried Oregano

400ml Beef Stock

2 tbsp Tomato Paste

60ml Red Wine

Method

1. Peel onion, carrot, parsnip, swede and potatoes and cut into 4cm chunks. Wipe mushrooms clean and slice in half.

2. Put Vegetables into slow cooker with beef. Scatter the garlic and oregano over.

3. In a bowl, mix together the stock, tomato paste, tomatoes and wine, then pour over the beef mixture.

4. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours, or until the meat and vegetables are tender.

5. Serve and enjoy :)

With our dinner, I served ours with some toasted Garlic Bread.

First post of many

Well here I am.... in front of my laptop with the timer of my oven going in the back ground. As well as the noise of my two older sons hitting each other with pool noodles, while somehow managing to not hurt each other or break anything and most of all...... not waking their 1 year old brother up.

A little bit about me... I am a stay at home mum of three sons, and before my youngest was born I was a swimming teacher of 3-5 year old. I grew up in foster care, which I believe, is the reason I am so family orientated. I do spoil my sons, but not with possessions, with love, hugs, and memories. I sacrifice alot for my sons and their happiness, but what I refuse to sacrifice is my cooking, or my coffee and tea :)

My gorgeous cup with a hot cup of tea. The cup is from a Maxwell & Williams 2012 collection to raise money for the Breast Cancer foundation. I had bought this cup at the beginning of last year for a dear friend who had cancer, unfortunately before I could give her the cup she passed away. So I cherish every hot cup of tea or coffee. Now I try and buy each collection and end up giving them to friends, as too many of us know others that have been affected by Breast Cancer, as well as other cancers. 

I cook most meals for my sons, apart from the once a week dinner at their Grandparents. I prefer to bake than buy cakes and biscuits, and I love that my sons want to help. I also have the challenge that my little one has a dairy allergy, which means, that even when I bake cakes, I cant use butter or milk. So I replace each with Rice Milk and Nutleg Marg.

I try make things from scratch, but sometime its far too chaotic, or I am far too tired and cheat. Yes that is right I cheat, but by cheating I mean, I buy a recipe base sauce, that all I have to do is add meat and vegies and its a meal.... quick, easy and I can get distracted and not have to worry about measurements.... easy.

These are three of the recipe bases, and I normally but them when they are on special.... $5 for 3. The Creamy Tuscan Chicken is my favourite, however with a child with a dairy allergy I dont cook it too often and when I do, I replace the chream with passata for my little on. Also the Beef Stroganoff and the Honey mustard ones are delicious, however they also involve cream. They have also just release Oven Easy Bake ones as well.

My cupboards are chaotic, my pantry of unorganised and the cupboard where my pots, pans, and machines are is over flowing with chaos... dont believe me.... have a look:

Yep, my Pantry, no order and when I try and look for something, I can never find it, or everything falls out.. I think my aim for this coming week will be to tidy up this mess...aaahhhhh

And my unorganised cupboard.... and yes everything fall out. I have too many machines, and my dream machine would get rid of all of them... a Thermomix....aaaahhhhhh. However it is far too expensive for me, so I must make do with what I have.

So by now, you maybe asking... why has she started this blog? Well the truth is, my oven died last night, and it most likely wont get fixed for about a week. It is Sunday, I have $5 to last till Thursday, and everything I was supposed to cook/bake today, involved the use of the oven.

So I have gone on the hunt for recipes where I can use my slow cooker or bread maker, and for sweat things, such as cakes, I did not come up with hardly anything and all the ones I have found required a cake tin. Which would be fantastic, however my slow cooker is too small to fit any of my tins. And as I have recipes scattered everywhere, with this, if I blog everyday about what I have been cooking, Its a great way for me to store these recipes, as well as share with others.

So enjoy... my first recipe will be a no bake Jelly Slice... hence the 'oven timer' comment earlier.

If anyone has any recipes they would love to share with me, let me know. I love trying new recipes, especially those for my slow cooker.